here i go again
by Kaist
Summary: You're not as terrible as you think you are, Robin. [chrom/fem!robin. vague time travel]


Robin awoke in a field.

Robin awoke in a field, and she turned over and curled into herself. The agonizing phantom pain of Falchion thrust through her chest blazed like the fires she'd been forced to watch Grima start, and it successfully caused her world filter and narrow in on the raw hurt. She barely heard the footsteps plodding- more like stomping- along on the ground until they reached her, and released a gasp of pain when a hand nudged her shoulder. The hand did not withdraw. Robin curled tighter.

"Chrom," she said miserably, refusing to face him. She ignored the small part of her that wondered why he hadn't yet beheaded her where she lay for her past actions. Chrom was a good man. Unlike her. "Why are you here?"

He ignored the question. "Lying here will do you no good."

She stayed silent, and heard him sigh from somewhere above her head.

"...I'm not angry at you." _Just disappointed, _her mind supplied, and she tried not to flinch. His hand's firm hold gentled, just a little. "Not after that last stunt of yours. Now I'm worried. Will you please look at me, now?"

_(...No. I'm ending this once and for all. Lend me Falchion, Chrom._

_Please.)_

"I don't think I can." She swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut. Think. Robin was good at thinking, or so she'd been told. Past failures drew that into doubt. "Where are Frederick and Lissa?"

As misdirections went, it was one of her worst yet. They both knew that. "Maybe the question we should be asking is 'where did your mark go?', Robin."

"Naga did something when I..." The tactician trailed off.

"When you decided that it would be a good way to atone by running yourself through with my sword." Chrom's voice held steel in it, and she really _did _flinch at that. "That wasn't one of your smartest ideas."

"No," she agreed in a small voice. "It wasn't. But it was the only way."

"Was it?" Somehow the two simple words stung. He had never doubted her before, even when he definitely should have. Perhaps he had reason to, though. She hadn't involved him in this plan.

That, too, was unheard of.

"We... we discovered _all _the outcomes, Chrom. All but one." Robin at last broke, voice cracking. "I applied _every possible sequence of events _and came out with a sliver of a positive outcome. One chance in a million to fix the break, and it took Virion, Morgan and I three years to work it out. Removing the mark was crucial. With it, Grima is revived within five years. Without it, we have a chance to fix things before they go to Plegia._"_

"And you were willing to risk everything on it, weren't you." It wasn't a question.

She winced. "Yes. I... would understand, if you refuse to forgive me for my actions."

He sighed again, because Robin never had forgiven herself for the things that the Fell Dragon did and _especially _hadn't let go of what Grima had done in the cycle before the last. He didn't- _couldn't- _blame her for the actions of another, even if that another wore her face. She was still his wife, after all, and he _knew _that she'd had a worse time of it in these blasted cycles of time than almost anyone else had. What she (and many others) generally failed to see was that the difference between Robin and Grima was as day and night.

Fell-blooded and borne of darkness Robin might have been, but she shined with just as much light as any child of Naga.

So Chrom circled around and with hands as gentle as a soldier could manage, he lifted Robin to her feet. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and drew back to examine her. "We'll finish it this time," he promised her, as he had promised Lucina that they would change the future. "You found the key. Now we'll plan _together-" _She looked down sheepishly. "-and we'll celebrate together once it's all over."

"We have a chance," she murmured, sounding almost childishly awestruck. "A _chance."_

"Yes. We do." He smiled, a small little thing that looked as if it were used to being far larger than it was at the moment.

There were still other things to talk about on the road back to Ylisse. They still had to rebuild their relationship and track down their children. Robin would have to deal with questions about her actions in the past cycle. Chrom would have to figure out how to bring Emm into the fold this time, how to best support his slowly-healing wife, what to do about Lucina and _Lucina._

But they had _time._

And Chrom still believed in changing fate.

**;this particular instance of time travel works like a limited time loop cycle that doesn't break until the "correct" choices are made. not that they know the loops are limited. ****and there's a _ton _going on behind this oneshot in particular, but as i'm soon going to be devoting my energies to maybe two or three longer projects, i decided not to turn this one into a full story.**

**you know, when you think about it, there are a _lot _of different kinds of time travel! the differences lie in the subtlety. fascinating stuff. thanks for reading!**


End file.
